Is Everyone Playing Pokemon GO?

A New Mobile Legend

By all accounts and measures, 2016 has been a pretty solid year for the gaming industry. It has been pretty fantastic with releases such as The Division, Far Cry Primal, Street Figther V, and Overwatch. We still have Call of Duty Infinity Warfare and Battlefield 1 on the horizon. So you may ask, which game is owning all the hype right now? Well how about a mobile game for your phone in which you catch Digital Pocket Monsters. Yep, the honor belongs to Pokemon GO. A game that transcends culture gaps, age, gender, and race. Don’t believe me? Go to a nearby mall, movie theaters, park, or anywhere with historic monuments and take a peak at the amount of people walking around aimlessly while staring at their phone screens.

Different Gamers

You might of not noticed it at first, but everyone is playing this game. I was hesitant to download it at first. I haven’t seen an episode of Pokemon since the late 90s when I was probably in middle school. I thought that boat had sailed. This game will be mostly played by little children the same way the original Gameboy Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue were. Boy oh boy was I wrong. Lets put things into perspective. The average gamer is a male between age 20 and 40. You could argue that it is mostly children age 5 to 15 are the ones that play games heavily on mobile phones. Take a step further and say most senior citizens probably do not play games, especially those involving cartoon characters. Most corporate professionals may possibly play video games, but they keep it quite, as it is viewed as immature in most Fortune 500 companies. You will often see women play a game for the first week or two it is popular to try to fit in with the boyfriend or husband, only to see them drop it as soon as the fad starts to fade away.

My Observations

Lets now take a closer look at Pokemon GO. I recently took my son who is a year old to the pediatrician. While waiting in the office, I noticed that every single kid in that place was talking about all the different Pokemons they have caught on their iPad mini or parents smartphone. Every single kid was engaged in this conversation. I also have two nephews, one entering middle school soon, and one who graduated high school. All of their friends, cousins, and neighbors play Pokemon GO on a daily basis. They spend hours at Pokestops popping Lures and attracting wild Pokemons. I typically play flag football and basketball with some younger bros who are still in college or graduated college, and that app is always opened on their phone as soon as we take a small water break.

I knew this game flew to new heights never before seen by a mobile game when I was attending an early morning conference with a few Senior Executives and Directors attending. Typical morning small talk while everyone was drinking their coffee for that energy boost which was badly needed. Suddenly there was a mention of Pokemon Go and everyone’s eyes lit up. Everyone was perked up on their seats and excited to talk about the different Pokemons they have caught. These are grown men in their 50’s and 60’s at a Fortune 500 company that act professional around the clock and would leave you to believe they have no personal life outside of work. Yet you can see the joy and happiness that normally children would have while showing off their Pokedex’s to each other.

Taking The Plunge

That was it, I was determined to try it out, I downloaded it and started playing it. I even got my wife into it. It was the greatest decision ever. A few times a week we go out to hunt for Pokemons and explore new parts of town we have never checked out. We are doing a fair share of walking which would of normally been spent sitting on the sofa watching Netflix or Hulu. The game is incredibly fun. But more importantly is the awesome community this game has developed.

My Experience

Near our house we have a shopping plaza that is typically empty on a Sunday night as people are at home gearing up for the work week. I noticed there was multiple Pokestops within a short radius and a Poke Gym in the area, so we decided to swing by shortly before midnight assuming it would be empty. We were shocked to see hundreds of people hanging out and playing the game while chatting it up with each other. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I saw everything from young bros and their girlfriends to much older men and women with their grand children. There was zero ethnic lines as well. I saw Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and even Asian people all hanging out as one just enjoying the latest wild spawn that would appear.

This was an awesome feeling, the feeling of being part of something bigger, for the hour we were there, there was no social divide that the American media tries to push on us. There were no Democrats or Republicans. No Black Lives Matter or Police Lives Matter people. No kids who were fans of Rap or Rock and Roll. No Suburban kids that come from wealth or inner city kids. Didn’t matter if you were a New York Knicks fan or rocking a Miami Heat jersey. We were just humans with no borders all getting along. It reminded me of the comradely that occurred shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  This epidemic even tackled the issue of childhood obesity as a lot of children were now outside and actually being active while chasing down these Pokemons.

Final Thoughts

I am currently at level 16 and counting and I highly encourage all bros to download the app and give it a spin. Go out there and meet people. You won’t regret it. It’s a fun experience. In the coming months I think its safe to say that a lot of companies are going to try to copy this style of game. And that’s fine in my opinion. Any game that gets people outside of their house and talking is a positive in my book. In the comments below please let us know which Pokemon is your favorite to attack/defend gyms across your city.